The Abraaj Group appoints Sarah Alexander as a managing director

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The Abraaj Group, a private equity investor operating in global growth markets, has appointed Sarah Alexander as a managing director.

Alexander (pictured) joins the group from the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA), where she currently serves as president and chief executive officer.

In her new role, Alexander will serve The Abraaj Group’s North American stakeholders providing them with fresh perspectives on global growth markets and drawing on Abraaj’s local presence in 30 of the world’s fastest-growing economies. She will assume her new role with the group in February.

Arif Naqvi, founder and group chief executive of The Abraaj Group, says: “We are delighted to welcome Sarah to The Abraaj Group. As the founding chief executive officer of EMPEA she has been a globally recognised voice in private equity for nearly a decade and has nurtured the development of the industry in growth markets.”

Alexander says: “The Abraaj Group has built a distinguished track record in growth markets over the past two decades based on its unrivalled, in-depth knowledge of the individual countries in which it operates and an extensive international network. It has been central to shifting private equity in growth markets from a fringe alternative asset class to a crucial investment class it is today.”

Alexander was instrumental in founding EMPEA, the global non-profit organisation that promotes the development of the private equity and venture capital industry in growth markets. She grew the organisation to more than 300 member firms representing 60 countries and more than USD1trn in assets under management, while developing the industry’s leading research products and programmes.

Prior to joining EMPEA, Alexander was a private equity investor in Asia from 1999 to 2004. She started her career in public service as a foreign policy adviser to the US House of Representatives, before working on international trade and finance policies for the Department of State, and subsequently for the World Bank Group on private sector participation in development finance.